Are you aware of how some people call noise music? It all depends on your perception of what music means to you. No right, no wrong, just taste. This play “Once upon a time in Wigan” tells the story of northern soul and how it lived and died in the Empress ballroom in Wigan, otherwise known as the Wigan Casino, during the eight year period between 1973 and 1981. It was everything to the people involved and when it ended they had to find other things to fill their lives. Written by Mick Martin and directed by Paul Sadot, this play grabs you and takes you with it as the main characters live their lives with drugs, but no drink, from midnight to dawn.
The actors take you with them, expressing their raw emotions as they come to grips with events. Maxine, played by Sally Carman, is the brash dress sales girl using soul to escape her mundane world. Suzane, played by Christine Roberts, works in a dry cleaners and wants to marry and have a normal family life, but it does not come her way. They are thrown in contact with Eugene, played by Richard Oldham, an ex meat porter, dealing in drugs, who rides a scooter, sorry “Chair”, called Geronimo; he plays havoc with his girl friend’s feelings. Then there is Danny, played by Steven Hillman, a redundant engineer, who lives at home and lives for soul. Mix these characters up and you have variable mixes until the end comes. Their destinations are then to be decided and, as is life, they are not always what you expect. To experience the soul scene and find out what those involved have in store for them you will have to go and see this intriguing play.
The audience were an odd mix, those who had been involved with Northern soul and those who were curious, but all came away from the theatre thoroughly satisfied with what they had seen. All set against the grey ballroom background of scenic artists Julienne Heskith and Franziska Smolarek. An interesting production. As a woman said to her male companion on leaving, “You know you were watching your life story”. © BA
“Once Upon a Time in Wigan” is in Leeds from the 11th until the 22nd March, 2003.
